Imagine a gambling hall where all the croupiers are wearing masks. Not exactly a place you'd want to lay down a bet, is it?

Yet that's essentially how the state's casino siting process is starting out. Millions of dollars are being put up for projects, but in some cases the public has little or no idea who's behind them.

While those details will eventually be known, communities like Albany and Schenectady are already under pressure to get behind deals, in one way or another, that they know too little about. In East Greenbush last week, the Town Board, with no public notice, voted unanimously to welcome "any reasonable" casino development proposals, just as a potential project was coming to light.

That's not how this is supposed to work. Nor does it have to, if municipal leaders remember who they work for.

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As the Times Union's James M. Odato reported, a look at the filings of 22 prospective developers who each put up $1 million in fees last week, making them eligible to file an application by the June 30 deadline, shows they didn't all reveal the kinds of things people surely want to know.

In Albany, for example, Rochester developer David Flaum, who has been out promoting his project, isn't on the list of fee filers. Nor are members of his team. Nor would he say why.

In Schenectady, David Buicko, the development executive of the Galesi Group, which is considering a casino in a mixed development project on the Mohawk, would only say that a casino operator put up the money. He wouldn't say who.

Yet the Schenectady City Council is scheduled to vote tonight on a resolution to change its zoning code to permit casinos. That could have consequences: Allowing an activity in a zoning code potentially makes it much more difficult to reject a proposal that otherwise meets the code.

Not all this mystery is necessarily nefarious. In some cases, property owners or developers put up the $1 million fee as a placeholder as they try to assemble projects and participants.

But what is of concern here is that as the June 30 deadline to file full applications approaches, developers will no doubt be looking for more than zoning resolutions. They'll likely be asking communities to express their support for the projects, which will be one of the things the New York Gaming Commission will take into consideration in evaluating applications. And no doubt officials will be under pressure to take action with the kind of speed and lack of public input we saw last week in East Greenbush, and could see tonight in Schenectady.

We appreciate the position public officials will likely find themselves in, with casino developers dangling millions of dollars in host fees and other benefits in front of them. But secrecy has no place in a democracy. Citizens deserve to know what these projects will be and who is behind them before their elected officials endorse them in their name.

Otherwise, they're laying their bets down to masked dealers, without even knowing what game they're playing.